Zika vaccines at least 18 months away from broad trials

The World Health Organization said that vaccine trials to combat the Zika virus could be more than a year away, according to the Associated Press.

“It seems indeed that the link with Zika (and microcephaly) is becoming more and more probable, so I think that we need a few more weeks and a few more studies to have this straight”, Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation, told a news briefing.

Meanwhile, Kieny told AFP it would take an estimated four to eight weeks to establish whether Zika causes microcephaly and the severe neurological disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome.

“We’ve gotten to the point now where we have to say Zika is guilty now until proven innocent”, Dye said. He said that keeping homes free of mosquitoes was the most effective way to contain the virus until a vaccine is developed.

“We have made it a priority to stay ahead of the possible spread of this virus in Florida”, Gov. Rick Scott said in a written statement announcing the hotline.

On Friday, researchers at Public Health England reported that the Zika virus was found in the semen of a British man two months after he was infected.

What is the Zika virus?

The county will begin its own testing for the virus Monday after a test run this week that confirmed a third case of the disease in Dallas.

He said the people should immediately seek medical attention if they suffered from symptoms such as fever, body aches, rashes and conjunctivitis within seven days of returning from the 33 Zika-infected countries. One big reason: The mosquito that most commonly transmits it, Aedes aegypti, is present throughout the island.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) is investigating two presumptive cases of imported Zika virus in the Louisiana.

Two additional Zika infections were confirmed Friday in Florida, raising the statewide total to 20 reported cases, including seven in Miami-Dade and three in Broward counties, the Department of Health said.

Sexual transmission of Zika virus is possible.

Last month, officials said a baby born in a Hawaii hospital was the first in the country with a birth defect linked to Zika.

The Obama administration action also followed a new advisory from the CDC that pregnant women with a male sex partner who has traveled to, or lives in, an area affected by active Zika virus transmission should refrain from sex or use condoms until the pregnancy is over.

Since May 2015, the mosquito-borne virus has steamrolled through Brazil – infecting potentially 1.3 million people – and spread to at least 25 other countries and territories in the Americas.

With Ebola, which comes from the same family of viruses as Zika, research on persistence in semen has shown that it could last up to nine months in some men.